Calm and Calamity
by The Crafty Imp
Summary: A careless, easy-going Lucario and an uptight, bitter Alakazam, polar opposites on the same team who are convinced that the other's ideals are all wrong. But they'll quickly learn to embrace each others way of thinking, if they want to avoid being demolished by Drake's Dragonite that is...


**Another Pokemon one-shot! This one took a little longer than I thought, but I really wanted to do a romance story between my two favorite pokemon, I should mention that this is NOT the same Alakazam from 'A Big Brothers Job'. I also do not own Pokemon, The OC Amber and pokemon personalities do however. **

**So, here's pokemon trainer Amber, Aurora the female Lucario Cici the female Lopunny, Zen the male Alakazam, Tyson the male Machoke, Trip the male Luxray and Slugger the Male Shellos. **

* * *

"Leto! Finish it with flamethrower!" Amber commanded her infernape; the giant ape pokemon parted his jowls, releasing a bout of flame at the unfortunate golbat. The poison type collapsed in a smoking heap on the rough stone. The blue haired grunt commanding the giant bat returned the pokemon and scowled at the duo. Amber simply smirked and looked at Riley, the eccentric trainer she had recently met as he returned his lucario. The Team Galactic duo clumsily shoved their pokeballs in their back pockets and made yet another hasty retreat, yelling over their shoulders how they would be back. Amber rolled her eyes dismissively, but didn't doubt them. The grunts always showed up eventually, she turned to Riley, giving him a smile.

When she had first ventured into Iron Island, Amber was hoping to catch a strong rock type to add to her team of four, she didn't expect to be approached by the exquisitely dressed trainer Riley who was asking for her assistance with the numerous wild pokemon that resided here, he even offered to heal her team if they were injured. It seemed like a fair trade so of course she had agreed. The older trainer looked down at her and held out his hand which Amber shook.

"Thanks. You really helped me out" He breathed, Amber was about to reply when he quickly cut her off "Listen, I have a Pokémon Egg here. Would you take it with you?" the young woman blinked in surprise as he pulled out an egg container, holding it out to her with an expectant grin.

"Huh?" she asked a little dumbly, taken back by the sudden offer "You already healed my pokemon and I was happy to help, you don't have to give me this…"

"Oh, but I want to!" He insisted "You mentioned that you needed some extra pokemon to balance out your team, and I think this one would be perfect for you" He winked, Amber smiled. Overcome with gratitude as she carefully took the container from him.

"Thanks Riley, I really owe you one" She hugged the glass case close to her chest, glancing toward the exit, frowning at how dark it had gotten "Wow, it's pretty late. I should go…" she descended the rocky steps and onto the path "Guess I'll see you on the battleground?" She asked hopefully. The raven haired man grinned,

"You know it"

* * *

3 weeks later, at the Snowpoint City pokemon centre. Amber was sitting at a video phone conversing with her father Drake, the Orange League champion on Pummelo Island. In her lap sat Aurora, the little riolu had hatched from the egg Riley had given her two weeks ago, and the small fighting type had already proved to be more than a handful. She was very loving and seemed to care deeply for Amber, and was also incredibly powerful in battle. But the aura pokemon had an unnerving knack for getting herself and those around her into trouble; barely three days after she had hatched she had nearly gotten Amber killed after she accidently woke a houndoom who was resting with its pups. Naturally the dark type was threatened and Amber was nearly mauled to death.

"So, Aurora looks like she's going to evolve soon…" Amber mumbled into the phone while idly twirling her hair, Drake was silent for a moment.

"You never know" He said reassuringly "Maybe that will help her mature a little, all baby pokemon are difficult at one point or another" Amber smiled, her father always knew what to say.

"Thanks dad" She smiled, she glanced at her lap. Grimacing when she realized that the baby fighting type had gotten away, "Ah, dad I've got to go, I think Aurora's causing trouble. Again"

"Good luck Ambie" He smiled, calling her by her pet name. The trainer hung up and scanned the reception area, she hadn't heard any crashes or screams so she assumed that Aurora has simply wandered off, the aura pokemon had a knack for disappearing and sneaking away from under her Ambers nose; Nurse Joy was ever present behind the counter. The pinkette was taking a tray of pokeballs from a make trainer, Aurora was still nowhere in sight. Amber sighed and stepped out through the double doors, a violent shiver ran through her petite frame as the cold wind whipped across her body. It was almost pitch black outside and Amber had to squint, trying to see if there were any footprints in the snow. As the wind died down and the whistling in her ears had stopped she was drawn to the sound of was appeared to be the yells of a young male, whatever was wrong he sounded angry and frantic, worry began to claw at Ambers chest. The noise was coming from the side of the pokemon centre; she carefully jogged through the snow, silently praying to Arceus that Aurora wasn't the cause of the racket.

As she rounded the corner, Amber froze on the spot. The first thing she registered was Aurora yapping viciously at a trainer around her age. The young woman face-palmed and moved to yank the fighting type away from the male trainer, grabbing the small pokemon by her waist and holding her tight to her chest.

"Oh Arceus I'm so sorry!" She began to apologise profusely to the trainer, the boy before just glared.

"Control you damn pokemon will ya?" he snapped, crouching to inspect

"Again, I'm so sorry" Amber sighed and held Aurora eye level, to her surprise, she was still trying to attack the male. Aurora struggled against her trainers grip, growling and clawing at the sleeves of her jacket. "What the hell has gotten into you Rory?" She tried using her nickname to get her to listen. As she tried to calm her down without having to force her back into her pokeball, she heard an almost animalistic sounding groan. Amber squinted against the dark, as her eyes adjusted. She blanched at what she saw.

Lying in a heap of muddy snow, a kadabra was curled up into a tight ball. Amber was stunned that she didn't even notice it was there, she instantly released Aurora from her grip and shoved past the seething male trainer, carefully crouching beside the pokemon. Aurora was still growling at the other trainer, but Amber was preoccupied as she examined the psychic type without touching it. She didn't know much about pokemon first aid, and she'd never seen a kadabra this close before. Her father briefly looked after an Alakazam when she was young; all she knew about the species was that they were the smartest of all pokemon. Knowing that and seeing this kadabra in such a weakened state was heart-breaking. After closer inspection, she found a nasty cut across its stomach, she figured it was from the result of a scratch or slash attack. She gently stroked the short fur between its eyes, trying to coax its eyes open. She glanced back over her shoulder, directing her words at the trainer who was clearly resisting the urge to kick the riolu nipping at his ankles.

"Is this you pokemon?" Amber asked, carefully helping it up into a sitting position. The kadabra's face was still fixed into a grimace and it was shaking from the cold.

"Unfortunately" the boy snapped, "Pathetic thing couldn't even beat a grotle!" he glared at the shivering pokemon and took a few menacing steps towards them. Amber on the other hand, was dumbstruck. Her eyes drifted back to Aurora, and then it clicked. She must have attacked the trainer when she saw the kadabra. Amber frowned in confusion before lowly standing, making sure that the psychic type was firmly behind her.

"Where did these injuries come from?" She asked, her voice surprisingly steady considering how much her teeth were chattering. The trainer squared up to her, Amber gulped when she finally realized how big this guy was. Thanking Arceus that she had picked up her pokemon shortly before she called her father her hand dipped into her bag, fingers closing around Tyson's pokeball. The trainer held her gaze before answering.

"He lost a battle" Amber's mouth twitch downwards, she glanced back to the kadabra. Who was looking up at the young man with a bizarre expression of fear, anger and what looked like a hint of respect. She looked back up at the trainer, allowing her disbelief to show on her features.

"Your kadabra's in pretty bad shape why didn't you take it inside the pokemon centre straight away? I mean seriously you're right outside the damn thing!" the anger in her voice surprised her, but if her suspicions were true then she had good reason to tear this boy to shreds.

"He needed to be disciplined, not that this is any of your business" the young man snapped, he looked past her and glared dagger at the helpless pokemon "Isn't that right Zen?"

Both trainer watched the pokemon nod meekly, although Amber glimpsed what she thought was a hint of defiance in the kadabra's eyes. She refused to budge as he tried to push past her; with her suspicions confirmed she tightened her grip on Tyson's pokeball.

"I'm not even going to ask what kind of disciplining you're talking about" She hissed once she curbed her anger somewhat "But you need to get him to Nurse Joy before he gets worse" they continued to stare one another down.

"You know what?" he smirked after an extended silence, reaching into his back pocket "He's yours, I've got no time for such pathetic creatures" he launched the ball at her; Amber winced as the plastic contraption smacked into her collar bone. She stared, her mouth agape as the trainer stalked off.

"Asshole!" She called after him; he only flipped her off in response before cackling loudly. Amber scowled, she didn't even get his name, he didn't have any distinguished characteristics, brown hair and a black leather jacket wouldn't make catching up with him later any easier. She swallowed thickly, slowly crouching to pick up the pokeball that was thrown at her. As she turned it over with her fingers, the dull orange glow from the street lamp behind her seemed to intensify, making the blurry outline of her shadow crisp in the snow. She whipped her head round, only to be blinded by a white hot glow, she stumbled. Falling on her rear end into the icy snow as she gazed with narrowed eyes through her fingers, she felt what she thought to be Aurora clinging to her thigh while shielding her own eyes. Tearing her gaze away from the light, Amber looked for the wounded and recently abandoned kadabra, she couldn't see it anywhere. Even if her eyes were throbbing blue she still would have been able to see it…

Then it clicked, with wide eyes she turned back to the steadily diminishing light light.

"No way…" she muttered out loud, was the kadabra evolving? She knew that for that to happen it would have had to be traded, but surely the previous encounter didn't count as a trade if she didn't give the boy one of her own pokemon? Amber shook her head in disbelief, seems like the laws of trade and evolution weren't so black and white after all.

The blinding light vanished, Amber slowly stood. Subconsciously clutching Aurora close, she took a few hesitant steps toward the newly evolved Alakazam, she blinked a few times to clear the spots and examined the pokemon more closely. It had gotten bigger, that was for sure. It's tail was now gone and it's head had grown a good few sizes, his arms and legs appeared to be a bit more sinewy than the normal lanky limbs of an Alakazam. The young woman released the riolu from her grip, the fighting type sluggishly trudged through the snow and up to the psychic type. Amber moved to stop her; her normally quick mind seemed to be working at a shuckle's pace as she tried to process her current situation, she figured that Aurora must have been trying to defend the poor pokemon which is why she attacked the male trainer. But she could get the full story later, right now she needed to focus on what was important.

Still clutching the Alakazam's pokeball, she approached the clearly confused pokemon. Stopping a few meters before it and kneeling at eye level. She suddenly remembered something that the dick-head of a trainer had said before he hopped it,

"You're name is Zen, right?" she began cautiously, she resisted the urge to cringed as the Alakazam glared at her, the scathing look was only enhanced by its naturally menacing face. But after a few beats of silence the psi pokemon detected no intended malice in her words, its shoulders slumped as it nodded solemnly. Its eyes drifted towards the general direction its former trainer went in, then to the pokeball clutched in Amber's hand. Not wanting to distress it any more than it already was, she decided to take things one step at a time.

"We should get you inside" She said, "You're still in a pretty bad state" at its suspicious look she then added: "We'll only get you looked at and cleaned up, and then we can take it from there"

* * *

Two months later, Amber was on her way to Pummelo Island for a long overdue visit to her father before she faced the Elite Four. She sat comfortable on the docks in Sunyshore City, soaking up the sun while her team relaxed a few feet away before they were confined to their pokeballs for the twelve hour trip. Leto sat near his trainer, enjoying the heat while he sat propped up against a concrete post with his eyes closed, Slugger was happily splashing and paddling in the water, Trip lay snoozing on the wooden platform with Cici resting her head on the base of his neck, using her giant ears to protect her eyes. Aurora was playfully sparring with Tyson, and finally. Zen was mediating facing the calm water.

In the fast couple of months, Amber had decided to add Zen to her team. She asked him first of course, the Alakazam was unsure. Being abandoned by his old trainer she cut him deep, even if the brute was abusive. But after he considered the prospect of furthering his training he decided to travel with Amber and her team, his strong psychic tendencies proved more than useful in battle, but he had to admit that Amber took much better care of him than his previous master. It was awkward at first; since Zen was so used to not speaking unless spoken to he refused to interact with the rest of the team, even Aurora who had essentially saved him. Cici, being the conceited being she is had of course tried charming her way in, but these arrogant advances were swiftly crushed. Tyson had tried to befriend him, the gentle giant had attempted multiple times to strike up a conversation but all he ever got was the cold shoulder treatment. Leto and Trip simply carried on with their passive aggressive attitudes and sometime chose to ignore his existence altogether. Aurora however, never stopped trying.

The fighting type had evolved from a scruffy riolu into a graceful lucario, she was a lot taller than she used to be and she had full control over her aura abilities. And thankfully, much to Amber's relief Aurora had mellowed out in attitude almost completely, she defiantly wasn't as misbehaved as she used to be and almost never caused trouble, yet she was still rather irresponsible. But she was much easier to control now, Amber even kept her out of her pokeball most of the time.

The lucario left the sweating, borderline exhausted Tyson after their little sparring session and carefully approached Zen from behind. Now that she could read the auras and moods of other she had a good insight into what the rest of the team along with her trainer was feeling. At the moment, Zen's aura was a calm mix of blue and greens. She smiled to herself; the psychic type is rarely this content, but then again, she liked being around him regardless of his mood. He was especially fun to tease when he was grumpy since he's normally so uptight and cynical; she turned to walk away, but was quickly stopped in her tracks by a familiar husky voice.

"What do you want Aurora?" Zen asked evenly, not opening his eyes. The lucario winced at the sudden change in his aura, he was definitely annoyed.

"How many times Zen?" She said, an edge of teasing in her soft voice "Everyone calls me Rory, Aurora's such a mouthful" she smirked, but when the Alakazam didn't respond she sighed "I was just checking up on you…" She mumbled

"I am fine, but your concern is appreciated" He answered in his normal, monotone voice. Rory smiled at this and sat beside him, not to close. But close enough to catch his eye, at her continuous staring Zen finally opened his eyes and glared at her. "What is it now?" he snapped, clutching his spoons a little tighter than normal. Rory smiled sweetly.

"Your aura's calm, and that makes you surprisingly nice to be around" She replied honestly, Zen rolled his eyes, forcing his telekinesis to keep the inevitable upward twitching or his lip from showing.

"It's simply the meditation" He replied dismissively, Rory was probably the only pokemon he could honest to Arceus tolerate beyond battle and any necessary interaction since she did defend him against his brutal old trainer, but that didn't mean he was always open to conversation.

"You need to stop looking at everything so logically" She said, amused by the familiar banter.

"What other way is there?" He deadpanned, Rory laughed, a sweet sound that Zen liked way more than he should have.

"Well, I suppose your right" She agreed "but this outlook will leave you with all the emotional capacity of a Gyarados" she stated bluntly, she may not have his intellect but she still deeply intuitive, and she always liked to think that she knew him better than the others, even Amber.

"Maybe so" He replied snappily already becoming agitated "But logic and intelligence compared to irresponsibility is more useful in the long run, if I want to keep getting stronger that is" Rory nearly face-palmed, he always used this response the close all conversation. That was all the psychic type ever strived for. Power and strength, his ideals had always clashed with hers, sure. Being a fighting type she did enjoy a good battle, but she also loved company, she loved her friends and making news ones. Her free spirited ways annoyed Zen sometimes and in turn his introverted, strength-hungry ways irritated her. He thought that she needed to be more serious and she wanted him to loosen up a little, why did she like being around him so much again….?

After a few minutes of sitting in silence, the ferry had finally arrived and Amber was calling her team back to their pokeballs. Rory patted Zen's shoulder plate, surprising him.

"I'm sure we'll get through to each other one day" She sighed, giving him a weak smile before walking up to Amber, who returned her to her pokeball. Zen sat in contemplative silence for a few moments before he looked up at his trainer, he nodded once at her inquisitive look. Amber returned him to his pokeball and boarded the ferry home.

* * *

Once Amber stepped of the ferry, she instantly ran squealing into her father's waiting arms. The raven haired champion chuckled,

"Welcome back Ambie" He smiled warmly, throwing an arm around his daughters shoulders as the two walked away from the docks. Once the two were home, Amber began to prattle on about her adventures in Sinnoh and Kanto and showed her father the team she had put together to beat the Elite Four, she left her pokemon to enjoy the lush training grounds in the arena that was adjoined with their home, the six pokemon gazed around the lush field complete with a natural lake and all.

"Seriously?" Cici finally cried after the stunned silence "Amber lives here and we spend most of our lives' sleeping in disgusting forests!" The angry lopunny huffed and folded her arms.

"Can't completely agree with you there C…" Tyson said, "But I could easily retire to a place like this" He settled himself in the grass, folding his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. Trip sauntered towards a willow three, laying in the shade and nuzzling the soft grass. Rory smiled,

"I'm going for that lake" She announced before nudging the Shellos beside her "You coming Slugger?"

"Hell yeah!" The water type enthusiastically agreed, Zen watched the two, the ever present expression of disapproval on his face as Rory launched herself into the clear water with a rather impressive leap. Slugger was close behind, the aura pokemon resurfaced near the center of the lake. Shaking her head, water droplets flying from her appendages, the Alakazam cursed himself for paying such close attention. The psychic type immediately began hunting for a quiet spot to meditate and find more ways to focus and strengthen his already powerful mind, being sure to find somewhere where he wouldn't hear her laughter.

He had to admit, Amber's father had a lovely home here. There were a few other pokemon in groups, the Alakazam assumed that he raised and cared for others' pokemon, no doubt they had a good environment. Zen had found a nice spot near the other side of the lake amongst some boulders; he made himself comfortable, closed his eyes and concentrated, using a fraction of his powers to keep an eye out for anyone who tries to sneak up on him, namely a certain dual fighting/steel type.

Forcing himself to relax, his shoulders slumped and his head sank closer to his chest. As the noses around him blurred into calming static as he drifted further into the familiar and comforting trance –like state, all while remaining aware of his surroundings. He didn't really need to put the extra effort in, but he'd been looking over his shoulder since the day he hatched. Even though he had technically imprinted on his old trainer whose name he refuses to remember, he'd spent most of his months as an Abra awake, which is both unnatural and damaging to their species. His trainer used to order his older pokemon to attack him without warning, Zen had theorized that this was to unlock his special ability. Of course it failed, the only way to unlock a special ability is through bonding and nurturing, Amber was good at that. And he had to admit that he has learned more about battling with her trust and friendship than he ever did with his old trainer's brutal drills. But his personal rule remained the same, to be a worthy pokemon one had to be powerful and able to dominate the weak, even though a certain jackal-like pokemon kept insisting that it was Zen's former trainer that had instilled these poisonous ideas into his head, her reasons always fell on deaf ears. Of course she would never understand his point of view; she saw life as one big party. Crossing each bridge as she came to it and never taking herself, or anything else too seriously. He didn't deny that she was a strong fighter, but her free-spirited attitude was nearly infuriating to him.

He cursed himself for the hundredth time for allowing his thoughts to dwell on her for too long, no doubt she would end up looking for him soon. Oddly enough, rather than becoming annoyed at the thought, he nearly smirked. Nearly, he couldn't deny that their banter and light arguing was sometimes a great source of amusement to him, even though he wasn't the most social of pokemon she stuck with her guns and tried to make him open up. He had to admire her determination there, not to mention she did defend him while his trainer very nearly kicked him to death, even if she could only nip at his ankles. And as Tyson sometimes says _'she ain't bad to look at, ain't bad at all'. _

An alarm went off in his head as he sensed someone approaching, a tiny, ghost of a smirk appeared on his face when he sensed who the pokemon behind him was.

Rory, of course it was her. Who else would be brave enough to approach him during meditation, most pokemon stayed away from him anyway due to his size. And his team knew him well enough to leave him alone, but the blue fighting type always wormed her way in one way or another. But before he could snap at her or tell her to leave she spoke up,

"Amber wants us in the main arena" The familiar, lyrical voice said. He cocked an eyebrow and slowly stood, turning to face her. He towered over her by a good few inches but Rory never seemed to care, he cleared his throat and turned his eyes to the ground. Rory was still a little damp from her swim with Slugger, and as clichéd as it sounded Zen found himself comparing the sunlit droplets on her rich royal blue fur to tiny sapphires, it was times like this where he really couldn't deny Tyson's words.

"What for?" He asked, his gruff voice nearly breaking, Rory shrugged and began walking away. Clearly expecting him to follow, the Alakazam sighed in mild annoyance but followed a few meters behind her nonetheless. The two walked in silence, Zen feeling oddly uncomfortable and Rory, relaxed as ever, half skipping, so used to the tense aura surrounding the psychic type she saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Once they'd reached the house, Trip, Cici and Tyson were already there. Rory went straight up to the machoke, exchanged some kind of fist bump/handshake that Zen didn't even pretend to understand. Tyson playfully ruffled the spiky fur on her head, making her squeal and playfully punch his arm. Zen tensed even more, then became thankful that Leto and Slugger joined, the fire type dragged Tyson into conversation, leaving Rory to converse with Trip and Cici. The Alakazam mentally thanked the ape for dragging the machoke away from her, Zen nearly groaned and fought the temptation to smash his head into a boulder at the mere fact that he saw the super power pokemon as an actual threat.

Soon, Amber emerged from the house with her father, the two then led the pokemon to a large, well lit arena. The young trainer turned to her team and smiled,

"So, dad's just challenged us to a six on six battle. Normally we'd have to defeat the entire Orange League for this kind of opportunity, what do you say?" The pokemon eagerly agreed, it had been nearly a week since any of them had seen a good battle. Drake gestured for the referee as they took their places.

"The battle between Drake, champion of the Orange League and his daughter, Amber will now be underway" the blonde ref stated "Each trainer may use six pokemon each, the battle will end when all six of one trainer's pokemon are unable to battle"

"Let's make this interesting Ambie" Her father smirked, clasping the pokeball around his neck "We'll make it a double battle, I heard they do a lot of those in Sinnoh and I'm interested to see what you have learned" The champion pulled two pokeballs from his belt "Go! Venusaur and Electabuzz!"

As the two rivals were released from their capsules, Amber smirked. Luckily she'd had enough practice in double battles against Team Galactic.

"Leto! Slugger! You're up!"

The battle started out well enough, Leto made light work of Drakes Venusaur, Slugger also defeated the Electabuzz but was badly injured in the process and the water type was soon taken out by Drake's ditto. Forcing Amber to switch the Shellos for Trip and Drake to switch Electabuzz for Onix, it took the combined strength of Leto and Trip to defeat the ditto, the fire type was unable to use his special moves against the Onix. So he relied on his mach punch and the two eventually cancelled one another out. It was looking good for amber, she still had four pokemon in her arson while her father had only two, Drake chuckled.

"Impressive" He complimented his only daughter, "But I think you know that I always have something up my sleeve"

Revealing his last two pokeballs, he released his ghost type gengar, and his prized and most powerful pokemon dragonite, Amber's heart sank. How could she forget about dragonite?

"Uh-oh…." She mumbled, earning her a few startled looks from her team. She shook her head, holding onto the fact that most trainers barely made it past ditto. She sent Tyson in against dragonite, the fighting type managed to land a powerful low kick. But it didn't seem to affect the dragon pokemon much, Amber ordered Trip to use a spark attack, forgetting to take into account the fact that gengar was a walking shadow. Of course, the attack had little to no effect and Trip was finished off with a faint attack, Tyson following close behind after an incredibly strong dragon rage from dragonite. Amber was fast becoming nervous, but she couldn't let her team see how anxious she was. After a moment of strained thinking, she ordered Cici and Zen into the fray. Knowing that she at least had a type advantage over gengar, but she didn't know what to expect with Cici going up against dragonite, the dragon's defenses were incredibly, Tyson was lucky he got in close at all. Amber ordered Zen to use psybeam, and Cici to use dizzy punch. The normal type barely got within an inch of dragonite before she was blasted with a hyper beam, the poor rabbit was barely standing after the dust had settled. Amber, who was just about ready to scream in frustration at this point commanded Cici to try a quick attack to get past the dragons defences. But a swift head-butt from the orange was enough to knock her out for count for good.

"Oh Arceus how many moves can this thing do? I think it learned more since I left" Amber groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose, she quickly composed herself and turned to her final pokemon "Aurora, looks like it's up to you"

The aura pokemon nearly glared at her trainer, after seeing the dragon type's ridiculously strong defenses she had to admit to herself that she didn't exactly fancy her chances. Rory said a quick prayer to Sir Aaron and his Lucario and took her place beside Zen, who had weakened the gengar enough to have it swaying where it stood. The Alakazam nodded to her once before turning to his opponent, Rory heard Amber yell to her to use bone rush, the fighting type complied. A staff fused with aura appearing in her right paw, Drake swiftly ordered dragonite to use a slam attack. The dragon soared a few meters into the air before spinning and diving tail first toward Rory, the jackal like pokemon reflexively used her staff to throw herself out of range. Using a small pile of rubble from Cici's battle for leverage, Rory barely missed the dragon's heavy tail as it smashed into the ground. Rory landed safely in a crouched position a few metres away, though she could feel the rush of air lap at her back from the sheer force of dragonite's attack.

"Thank you aura" She drawled as the bone rush disappeared from her paws "Even if I didn't get to use you…" She concluded with a grimace. Looking up, she caught Zen squinting in her direction, something akin to concern in his eyes, which is not something you see every day. It quickly disappeared once he saw she was okay, but it still left Rory a little stunned. One quick psychic attack from Zen and the gengar had fallen, now it was two against one.

"Alright guys!" Amber praised, the two pokemon on the battlefield however, didn't share her enthusiasm. The three competitors stared one another down, Zen turned to Rory.

"I can predict each move he'll make, just execute the moves Amber commands but follow my plan…"

"It won't work" Rory interrupted, she returned the psychic type's glare "Look at him" She said coolly she glanced back at their opponent. The dragonite stood still, gazing at them not with the arrogance of a powerful pokemon that wanted to win another battle, but with an experienced calm concentration that led both Zen and Rory to believe that he knew more than he was letting on. "He obviously knows that you know what move's he'll make before he makes them. We'll have to improvise" Rory concluded.

"The day I take battling advice from the likes of you…" Zen nearly exploded, but as he glanced back at dragonite and the deadly cold focus in his eyes he managed to semi-accept the fact that they would need to throw him off somehow, knowing that the dragon would do the dame to them.

"You can't rely on your own brand of logic here Zen" Rory cried, "You need to loosen up, empty your mind and just wing it" the psychic type rolled his eyes.

"I agree that we need to catch him off guard but we can't just, as you say, 'wing it'. We need to penetrate his defences, and we can't achieve that by simply dodging each one of his attacks…" Zen trailed off, Rory frowned, an idea forming in her head.

"What about a distraction?" She said, keeping her voice low enough for only Zen to hear "You're right, we need a plan. So what if you be the diversion, then I can get up behind him…" her eyes bore into his, allowing him to figure the rest out.

"Are sure you'd be able to make that kind of distance in such a short amount of time?" Zen asked skeptically, Rory rolled her eyes.

"I'm an aura master, I'll manage"

Amber watched the two, both frustrated and fascinated at their chattering. She couldn't understand what they were saying of course, she could tell they weren't arguing, they were strategizing. A smile touched her lips, oh how she loved her amazing pokemon team.

"Okay then, looks like they've got this one figured out" She murmured before raising her voice "Zen! Use psybeam, Aurora, use metal claw!"

The duo leaped into action, Zen aimed his attack at dragonite, the orange beast moved to defend himself. Drake commanded him to use dragon rage, but he never had the chance and Rory nimbly and effortlessly skipped behind him, blue claws now protruding from her wrists she slashed dragonite across the back whilst adding a kick for good measure. The dragon roared in pain, landing heavily on his stomach. Rory skipped back to Zen's side, the Alakazam rolled his shoulders and sighed, his eyes not leaving dragonite as he struggled to his feet.

"I thought he was going to use skull bash" Zen shook his head, Rory gave him a tired smile, she still couldn't believe her plan worked, she'd never been one for thinking ahead.

"This is what I mean" She breathed "You can't be so reliant on your predictions, you need to be able to change your mind" Zen scoffed disbelievingly,

"Don't forget we accomplished this by planning" He replied "And what I have been saying this whole time is that you can't be so reckless as to go with the flow, it's irresponsible in battle" Rory laughed tiredly.

"We really are two different extremes aren't we?" She sighed, Zen smirked. An alien sight for the lucario, Rory smiled back. Only now just realizing that they actually seemed to be working out their differences, returning to the battle at hand. Rory allowed the claws on her hand to materialize as she watched dragonite slowly struggle to his feet, the two pokemon used a similar strategy, after Rory's metal claw had injured dragonite so badly he deemed her the greater threat. So he directed his ice beam in her direction, the fighting type very nearly had her tail frozen to the ground while she tried to dodge the bitter cold attack, Zen quickly stepped in with a powerful psycho cut. Using this distraction and the now frozen ground to her advantage, Rory built up enough speed to send herself flying towards the dragon, before her opponent could even blink she on upon him, her hand clasped around his throat, Amber had ordered her to use force palm, her strongest and most effective attack.

But dragonite was much quicker than she gave him credit for, he reacted instantly and as she released the heavy burst of energy from her lithe body dragonite used hyper beam. Rory was barely able to cry out as a brief, yet agonizing white hot pain whipped across her body from the tips of her toes to the tips of her ears, she felt the awful stomach churning sensation of falling. It didn't last long, she was soon sent crashing into the ground, her back took the brunt of the impact and she knew that this battle was over for her, but she was determined to at least stay conscious. An overwhelming mix of nausea and exhaustion swept through her, it was almost enough to help her forget the red hot ache she felt and the undeniable smell of burning fur.

She had no idea what happened next, she drifted in and out of consciousness for what felt like hours. The only thing she could hear was a dreadful high pitched ringing and distant explosions, she managed to open her eyes fully for a few seconds, she caught the blurry outline of what looked like Zen as he appeared to run towards her, but staying awake proved too difficult a task, her eyes closed again and she knew no more.

Amber sighed with relief, but her victory was short lived as she rushed to Rory's side. Gently taking the lucario into her arms, she softly thanked her and returned her to her pokeball. Giving Zen, who was crouched over his teammate a reassuring smile and careful pat on the back.

"You were beyond incredible" she said breathlessly, that was easily one of the most intense battles she'd ever been in. amber genuinely thought it was over when Rory was hit with that hyper beam, but she managed to weaken dragonite enough for Zen to finish him off with a psychock. But her first and only priority was to get her pokemon medical treatment, after returning Zen. Who she couldn't help but noticed had been visibly concerned about Rory, her father returned his fainted dragonite and approach his daughter.

"Ambie, that was impressive!" he laughed, "You'll be taking my place as champion in no time if you keep that up!" Amber smirked and held her six pokeballs in her cupped hands.

"I think these guys deserve all the credit" She said, smiling at the little contraptions in her hands "Maybe we should go get them fixed up"

"Good idea" Drake agreed, re-fastening dragonite's pokeball around his neck "Let's go"

* * *

Rory gazed into the clear water, idly dragging her feet through the water while she watched with an uninterested expression. It had been a day since their battle with Amber's father, Rory hadn't really spoken to Zen or anyone for that matter since she'd decided to spend the next few days resting and allowing her erratic aura energies to balance themselves out again. But as she pulled her dripping toes from the lakes and stood, there was no doubt who she was hoping to see. She'd decided to try the same place where she found him before the battle, her gait was steady as she enjoyed the beautiful weather of the Orange Islands. She passed a snoozing Trip along with Leto and Tyson as they sparred in the field, she exchanged quick pleasantries with them while scanning the area for a certain aura.

She found him, sitting cross legged with his shoulders slumped. His aura was the same calming mix of blue and green. She knew that he she was there, still, she stood in silence behind him for a moment. His aura didn't change, she sat beside him. \her heart began to palpitate violently, she fought back a growl and desperately tried to stop the erratic beating. Even though her heart rate usually increased when she was in Zen's presence this was different, her stomach never clenched and her legs never grew weak.

"So" she sighed, suddenly uncomfortable but unsure why. "That was quite a battle yesterday huh?" she smiled weakly, scrambling for words to kick start a conversation. Zen sighed. Opening his eyes and fixing her with a surprisingly gentle gaze, Rory swallowed thickly. His aura remained calm, she noticed. But she couldn't help but wonder if he was having the same internal emotional conflict as she was.

"It was" Zen agreed, "Looks like our strategy worked after all" the psychic type turned his gaze back to the empty field, "I was surprised to see how well your idea for improvisation worked in our favor" Rory blushed for the first time in ages, thankful that it wouldn't show on her dark fur. Rory knew he was right, in that battle against Drake she realized that maybe all of his ideas about logic and planning weren't so bad after all, somehow his hard, uptight personality didn't seem as infuriating as it used to be. And Zen, in turn found that Rory's improvisational tenancies and relaxed, comfortable attitude towards battling is just as useful and damaging as his articulate way of planning. The two pokemon learned more about each other in that one fight than in the months they'd known one other, the Alakazam didn't mind one bit that Rory had managed to single handedly break down every single one of his walls. In fact he wanted to let her in, after everything that had happened between them, from Zen's abandonment to the recent battle he knew that she wouldn't be leaving him any time soon and vice-versa, both were content knowing that they understood one another a lot better.

Rory subtly shuffled closer to the Alakazam, blue fur lightly brushing yellow skin as she crossed her legs. Neither pokemon moved away from the light contact, Rory's heart was still racing. She smiled as a small epiphany hit her, boldly resting her paw on top of his clawed hand. Zen jumped, but soon found that he enjoyed the contact as his long fingers slowly closed around hers, his bony thumb idly brushing the navy fur.

"Hey Zen" she said softly,

"Yeah?" he replied, tearing his now soft eyes from their intertwined hands to hers.

"I think we've finally gotten through to each other"

* * *

**That. Was an ordeal. Seriously, this took me so long to write, but the idea wouldn't go away so I figured that I should accommodate it somehow :P hope you enjoyed!.**


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